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This hill has a personal connection in that my great grandfather Bell owned 400 acres here before selling to the forestry service in the 1950's (for £1 per acre). The remains of the old homestead are still visible, surrounded by mature broadleaf trees amid the pine, and the family return periodically to reconnect.

Parking was at the entrance opp the quarry (737848A) where loads of room. Follow the good track into the forest until a carpark - turn left uphill on tarred road. Views in the forest stretch to the big Sperrin hills to the N and from here brought the hills of Antrim within reach. Continue uphill at a crossroads past a new gate. The wind bringing the trees alive with creaks and groans of protest.

Take a track forking to the left, where the trees soon thin to show the top of Ougthmore a short distance away. Cross the fence where machinery has been accessing the hill - some turf cutting. Pools of water here were thick with clumps of frog spawn. Fairly straight forward jaunt to top reached in 45 minutes from start. There is a small summit cairn which is certainly dwarfed by the far reaching views. North the line of the high Sperrins, West to the Bluestacks, South to Mullaghcarn, Cuilcaigh, Cooleys, Mournes and East to Belfast and Antrim Hills.

Skiffs of rain peppered the ground for seconds and were gone as i returned to the forest track - returning the way i had come. Detoured to the little loughs at 736857B in hope of catching sight of some siska deer but wasn't to be today. Busy through parts of the forest with plenty of walkers and some mountain bikers but easy to lose yourself here. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/862/comment/4586/

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Picture from dr_banuska : Looking south east to (R-L) Slieve Gullion, Camlough Mtn, Slieve Foye and the western edge of the Mo

Picture: Looking south east to (R-L) Slieve Gullion, Camlough Mtn, Slieve Foye and the western edge of the Mo

dr_banuska on Oughtmore, 2009

by dr_banuska 11 Jul 2009

I decided to tackle this hill last weekend as it's one of the southermost in the range and closest to where I live. It is somewhat confusing that there are two Oughtmores in the Sperrins: this is the lower and further south of the two. Came with the dog and Discoverer Map 13 - without it I probably never would have even known where it was exactly. Probably the best approach is to head north for several miles off the main Cookstown-Omagh Road, shortly after the turn off for Wellbrook Beetling Mill coming from C'town direction (you seriously will need a map/GPS as even explaining the route is difficult!).

Looks like I parked at the same place as thisbliss: the forest comes into view on the left and there are two tracks opposite and just after a large white house. The left one is surfaced and leads to some old farm buildings and the right, which I took, is an unsurfaced forest track. I followed this for a short time until the start of the forest where there was a wire fence on the right. I walked up along the left side of the wire, easy enough to find a path but quite tough going as you're knee deep in heather most of the time. There are some fine views south and east here: Slieve Gullion, Camlough Mountain, Foye and the full length of the Mournes were clearly visible.

Eventually, once you've reached the top of the forest, the wire turns at a right angle and I followed it to the west for some time, sandwiched between the line of the forest to the left and the wire to the right, until I came to a gate over the main forest track. I climbed over this and followed the track where it forks off to the right towards the summit, a pretty straightforward hike. There is a very small cairn at the peak from where there are stunning panoramic views considering the relatively small height of this hill: besides the ranges already mentioned, I could see Slieve Gallion and part of Lough Fea to the north east, Cookstown, the full length of Lough Neagh and the Belfast Hills to the west; most of the Sperrin range to the north and north west (Sawel and Dart were very prominent); distant peaks that I guessed were the Bluestacks of Donegal; to the south west the table-like profile of Cuilcagh could be seen as well as the south Tyrone/Fermanagh hills such as Brougher, the upland between F'miletown and Fintona and Slieve Divena wind farm near Garvaghy.

Coming down I returned to the gate and this time followed the track straight down through the forest, which was quite an enjoyable if slightly eery walk; there were some deserted old farm buildings pretty deep in the forest. Eventually I came back to where I had branched off to follow the fence.

A very enjoyable afternoon's walking - I would highly recommend taking this circular route just for variety. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/862/comment/3846/

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thisbliss on Oughtmore, 2008

by thisbliss 2 Nov 2008

Promised myself a climb of this and managed it at the weekend. Parked at entrance to forest track H734844C. Walked up the track and where it reaches a crest turned left and set out over open ground. There was still plenty of snow lying about in patches and the ground was swampy so had to pick the steps out. Took about 40 mins to reach the top. Great views for a small mountain. Easily 7 or 8 counties can be seen. Good scenery of the bulk of the sperrins with a scattered coat of snow. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/862/comment/3414/

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The other one

by Peter Walker 5 Feb 2013

Given that Oughtmore probably translates as 'big mountain breast' it's not really a surprise that this most bosomy of mountain ranges has more than one of them. The lesser of the pair slumps in semi-isolation towards the eastern fringes, and is well-suited to a quick smash 'n' grab raid based on both its accessibility and lack of genuinely interesting features.

A quick way up not yet mentioned on MV starts from a minor road across the hill's southern flank. Start from said road just to the NE of a garden centre at (723832D) where two tracks in parallel (marked as one on the Discoverer series) head WNW; one car can be carefully parked here without blocking access. Take the one on the right (as you look) and follow its (only slightly) overgrown course across the hillside. In short order a conspicuous plantation is reached (, with a fence running up the slope just before it. I chose to climb up the narrow strip of ground between trees and ironmongery: to follow the nearside of the fence will involve climbing over an extra fence higher up. Whichever course is taken involves terrain Sperrinaded to a familiar degree of tussocky cussedness, but things ease reasonably quickly, and once the forest edge turns WNW (724836E) a quick hop over the fence gains the summit area with its cairn (although a very adjacent lump looks higher).

Time up and down - a lazy 45 minutes. Trackback: https://mountainviews.ie/summit/862/comment/14915/